I’ve been working for some years (with very long breaks) on a project for building modular, upgradeable and repairable mobile devices.
The first of these devices will be a laptop.

History

Many years ago (perhaps almost 20 years), when I first thought about building a portable computing device, I wanted to build something more like a tablet, but with a more powerful CPU than of a simple assistant (like PDAs), and using a general purpose OS, like laptops did. I even made some sketches, and some 3D models, but I didn’t go any further. Recently this became much more possible, without having to design everything from scratch, for instance, the main CPU’s PCB.

When I was part of the Technoethical project, we had discussions and plans to build such devices, like the laptop presented here, as part of the project, too, but, during the years I was involved more in the project we didn’t really get too far with it.

During the past years, I came back to this idea, because even though in the meantime there are different projects similar to this, my point is a bit different, as explained below.

Current state

I already have most of the internal components, mounted (more or less on the final position) on two aluminum plates. These two plates are supposed to be connected together using hinges, like any usual laptop.

The main idea is to be able to build these devices using off-the-shelf components, and build them with easily available tools, so that everyone with moderate technical skills will be able to build them.

See it booting Armbian (full boot up and shutdown time):

Components

Components included in this first prototype:

• SBC (Single Board Computer) – Orange Pi PC, based on Allwinner H3, 1GB DDR3 RAM (this is the board I had, and I could test with, but the platform is supposed to work with any SBC – generally, the more powerful, the better, for this purpose – as long as the right voltage and current is provided)

• HDMI to eDP display controller board, based on RTD2310E

• eDP HD display

• internal 4-port USB hub, to which the following devices are connected:

1. keyboard
2. touchpad
3. webcam
4. WiFi adapter

To-do

More things to add, or to do:

• audio amplifier, for the internal speakers
• audio switch, for the headphones plug
• internal speakers
• internal microphone
• variable voltage PSU, to adapt to various SBCs
• power management controller
• lithium battery pack
• battery charging controller
• mount hinges (the only parts scavenged from a manufactured laptop, but planning to replace them with DIY ones eventually)
• case frame
• secondary 4-port USB hub, for the following devices and functions:

1. Bluetooth adapter
2. secondary sound card, for internal speakers
3. WWAN adapter (for mobile internet), or external port (type A or C)
4. external port (type A or C)

Conclusion

For now, basically it’s just parts gathered and (more or less literally) “glued” together, but this is also to prove it’s mostly just that, and it’s easy for many people to do the same, if they want to (to have more control over the devices that they use), and to show that there are simple ways of building repairable and upgradable devices, even in the current times. And I think that this way is the best.